Bank Negara foreign reserves down US$900m at May 31

Malaysia's central bank is likely to cut its benchmark rate to 3% at a policy review on Tuesday to cope with a slowdown in growth, a slim majority of analysts in a Reuters poll said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves dipped US$900mil to US$108.5bil as at May 31, 2018 from US$109.4bil on May 15, as the US dollar strengthens against the ringgit. 

The central bank said the reserves position was sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.

The main components of the international reserves were foreign currency reserves (US$102.1bil), International Monetary Fund reserves position (US$800mil), Special Drawing Rights (US$1.2bil), gold (US$1.6bil) and other reserve assets (US$2.8bil).

Bank Negara reserves were at US$109.4bil at May 15 and sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports. The reserves were 1.1 times the short-term external debt.